ARTICLES ABOUT ARREARS BY DATE - PAGE 5

NEW DELHI: Amid rising food subsidy arrears, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for the second time this fiscal has floated a tender inviting bids for short-term loan of Rs 20,000 crore for smooth procurement and distribution of food grains. In April this year, FCI had floated a tender for the same amount and raised it from around 20 banks at interest rates in the range of 10.19-10.25 per cent. In the recently floated tender on July 15, the FCI said, "To meet out its short-term fund requirement for procurement and distribution of food grains , the corporation is considering raising short-term loans from the scheduled banks only for 90 days tenure.

NEW DELHI: The import duty on sugar is 15 per cent and prices of the sweetener are stable at present in the domestic market, Parliament was informed today. "No sir, the current rate of import duty on sugar is 15 per cent," Minister of State for food Raosabeb Patil Danve said in a written statement to the Rajya Sabha. Domestic sugar prices at present are stable, he added. He was replying to a question whether the government has raised import duty on sugar from 15 per cent to 40 per cent and its impact on sugar prices.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today assured that the 46 nurses from Kerala, who were evacuated from violence-hit Iraq recently, would get their salary arrears amount shortly. Salary arrears would be collected through Indian embassy and it would be given to nurses, he said at a meeting convened here by Non-Resident Keralites Affairs Department (NORKA) with nurses to discuss issues related to their rehabilitation. The nurses, who were held captive by ISIS militants in Iraq for about a month, returned home by a special Air India Flight on July 5. Another major issue bothering nurses was their debt at home, he said adding in a bid to provide relief in this regard, an NRI business and NORKA Vice-Chairman C K Menon has offered to pay Rs 3 lakhs each to them.

NEW DELHI: In a move expected to help the cash-starved industry, the government has removed the quantitative ceiling on exports of organic sugar. Earlier, the government had kept a ceiling of 10,000 tonnes on organic sugar exports. "The quantity ceiling for export of organic sugar has been removed till the time export of sugar is permitted freely," Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification. However, it said the export of organic sugar would be permitted subject to registration of quantity with DGFT and certification by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)

NEW DELHI: Judges are not "supermen" and they also require some rest, was how a former Supreme Court judge expressed his disapproval to Chief Justice of India R M Lodha's suggestion of making courts function all round the year. "The Chief Justice of India has said that Courts should remain open 365 days in a year. How is this possible? Does a Judge not require some rest ? Is he not a human being with a family to look after?" Justice Markandey Katju , Chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI)

NEW DELHI: Disciplinary proceedings cannot continue against an employee after his retirement unless such action is authorised under the rules regulating the particular service, the Supreme Court has held. The apex court passed the order by setting aside the decision of the Allahabad High Court which validated the continuation of disciplinary proceedings against an employee of an organisation falling under Uttar Pradesh government. A bench of justices T S Thakur and C Nagappan which dealt with the provision in the Uttar Pradesh Co-operative Employees Service Regulations, 1975, said there is no provision in it for initiation or continuation of disciplinary proceeding after retirement nor there is any provision stating that in case misconduct is established a deduction could be made from his retiral benefits.

NEW DELHI: The Food Ministry has sought approval to end the subsidy for raw sugar exports one year earlier as it is being availed only by a few sugar mills, a senior government official said today. To help the cash-starved industry to pay arrears to sugarcane farmers, the previous government had in February started a scheme to give a subsidy for export of raw sugar up to 4 million tonnes during 2013-14 and 2014-15 marketing years (October-September). "In a meeting with group of ministers last month, it was decided to suspend the sugar export incentive scheme by September 2014 as it was felt that many mills did not benefit from it. A CCEA note has been moved in this regard," a senior Food Ministry official told PTI. Although sugarcane arrears are highest at Rs 7,200 crore in Uttar Pradesh, mills in the state have not benefited from the scheme, the official said.

NEW DELHI: Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh today gave an assurance that they will utilise incentives offered by the Centre, including interest-free loans, to clear dues to farmers that stands at nearly Rs 7,000 crore now. Earlier this week, the government had decided to give an additional up to Rs 4,400 crore interest-free loans to sugar mills, hike import duty to 40 per cent from 15 per cent and extend export subsidy till September this year....

NEW DELHI: After facing the ire on law & order issues, UP government might face the closure of its sole and the largest agriculture based Rs35,000 crore sugar industry. UP sugar industry, the second largest in the country, has for the second time since the commencement of the sugar season 2013-14, decided to declare a shutdown, this time for a whole year, if their demand for rational cane price is not met. The sugar industry of the state, which houses noted names such as Bajaj Hindustan , Dhampur Sugar , Dalmia Sugar among others has complained that due to lack of a definite cane price linkage formula, the industry is in no position to pay "unreasonably decided cane price".

NEW DELHI: The government has agreed to accept most of the sugar industry's demands including a nearly three-fold increase in import tax and support for exports, but asked mills to first give an assurance on clearing their arrears to sugarcane farmers . At an inter-ministerial meeting on Monday, the government has decided to increase the import duty on sugar to 40% from the current 15%, agreed to continue with the subsidy of Rs 3,300 per tonne...